LEAR

A king, a king! To have a thousand With red burning spits come hissing in upon them!

EDGAR The foul fiend bites my back.

FOOL (to Lear) He’s mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse’s health, a boy’s love, or a whore’s oath.

LEAR

It shall be done. I will arraign them straight.

⌈To Edgar⌉ Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer.

⌈To Fool⌉ Thou sapient sir, sit here.—No, you she-

foxes—

EDGAR Look where he stands and glares. Want’st thou eyes at troll-madam?

⌈Sings⌉ Come o’er the burn, Bessy, to me.

FOOL ⌈sings⌉

Her boat hath a leak,

And she must not speak

Why she dares not come over to thee.

EDGAR The foul fiend haunts Poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale. Hoppedance cries in Tom’s belly for two white herring. Croak not, black angel: I have no food for thee.

KENT (to Lear)

How do you, sir? Stand you not so amazed.

Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?

LEAR

I’ll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence.

⌈To Edgar⌉ Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;

⌈To Fool⌉ And thou, his yokefellow of equity,

Bench by his side. ⌈To Kent⌉ You are o’th’

commission,

Sit you, too.

EDGAR Let us deal justly.

⌈Sings⌉

Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?

Thy sheep be in the corn,

And for one blast of thy minikin mouth

Thy sheep shall take no harm.

Purr, the cat is grey.

LEAR Arraign her first. ’Tis Gonoril. I here take my oath before this honourable assembly she kicked the poor King her father.

FOOL Come hither, mistress. Is your name Gonoril?

LEAR She cannot deny it.

FOOL Cry you mercy, I took you for a join-stool.

LEAR

And here’s another, whose warped looks proclaim

What store her heart is made on. Stop her there.

Arms, arms, sword, fire, corruption in the place!

False justicer, why hast thou let her scape?

EDGAR Bless thy five wits.

KENT (to Lear)

O pity! Sir, where is the patience now

That you so oft have boasted to retain?

EDGAR (aside)

My tears begin to take his part so much

They’ll mar my counterfeiting.

LEAR The little dogs and all,

Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart—see, they bark at me.

EDGAR Tom will throw his head at them.—Avaunt, you curs!

Be thy mouth or black or white,

Tooth that poisons if it bite,

Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim,

Hound or spaniel, brach or him,

Bobtail tyke or trundle-tail,

Tom will make them weep and wail;

For with throwing thus my head,

Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.

Loudla, doodla! Come, march to wakes and fairs

And market towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.

LEAR Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that makes this hardness? (To Edgar) You, sir, I entertain you for one of my hundred, only I do not like the fashion of your garments. You’ll say they are Persian attire; but let them be changed.

KENT

Now, good my lord, lie here a while.

LEAR Make no noise, make no noise. Draw the curtains.

So, so, so. We’ll go to supper i’th’ morning. So, so, so.

He sleeps. Enter the Duke of Gloucester

GLOUCESTER (to Kent)

Come hither, friend. Where is the King my master?

KENT

Here, sir, but trouble him not; his wits are gone.

GLOUCESTER

Good friend, I prithee take him in thy arms.

I have o’erheard a plot of death upon him.

There is a litter ready. Lay him in’t

And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet

Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master.

If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life,

With thine and all that offer to defend him,

Stand in assured loss. Take up, take up,

And follow me, that will to some provision

Give thee quick conduct.

KENT (to Lear) Oppressed nature sleeps.

This rest might yet have balmed thy broken sinews

Which, if convenience will not allow,

Stand in hard cure. (To Fool) Come, help to bear thy

master.

Thou must not stay behind.

GLOUCESTER Come, come away.

Exeunt all but Edgar

EDGAR

When we our betters see bearing our woes,

We scarcely think our miseries our foes.

Who alone suffers, suffers most i‘th’ mind,

Leaving free things and happy shows behind.

But then the mind much sufferance doth o’erskip

When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.

How light and portable my pain seems now,

When that which makes me bend, makes the King

bow.

He childed as I fathered. Tom, away.

Mark the high noises, and thyself bewray

When false opinion, whose wrong thoughts defile thee,

In thy just proof repeals and reconciles thee.

What will hap more tonight, safe scape the King!

Lurk, lurk.

Exit

Sc. 14 Enter the Duke of Cornwall and Regan, and Gonoril and Edmund the bastard, and Servants

CORNWALL (to Gonoril)

Post speedily to my lord your husband.

Show him this letter. The army of France is landed.

(To Servants) Seek out the villain Gloucester.

Exeunt some

REGAN

Hang him instantly.

GONORIL

Pluck out his eyes.

CORNWALL Leave him to my displeasure.—

Edmund, keep you our sister company.

The revenges we are bound to take upon your traitorous

father are not fit for your beholding. Advise the Duke

where you are going, to a most festinate preparation;

we are bound to the like. Our posts shall be swift, and